Alaska Reports 3 Deaths, 871 COVID-19 Cases As Delayed Monoclonal Antibody Shipments Begin Arriving

Alaska reported 871 more cases of the virus, three deaths and a high number of COVID-related hospitalizations on Tuesday, as delayed shipments of a drug used to treat the disease began to arrive in the state.

Of the 561 COVID-19 deaths of Alaskan residents during the pandemic so far, 150 have occurred from the beginning of August so far – long after vaccines were become widely available to the public. This means that just over a quarter of virus-related deaths among Alaskans have occurred in the past two months.

The three deaths reported on Tuesday involved an Anchorage woman in her 40s, a northwest Arctic man in her 60s and a Soldotna man in his 60s.

The current spike in new cases has far exceeded last winter’s peak and is being fueled by the highly contagious delta variant. Alaska’s per capita case rate over the past week remains the highest in the country, according to CDC data, although its per capita death rate over the past seven days ranks 20th in the United States .

Statewide, 194 people were hospitalized with the virus on Tuesday. This number does not include some patients who may no longer be contagious with COVID-19 but who are still sick enough to require hospital care.

The overall number of hospitalizations is down slightly from Monday’s near-record tally of 216 hospitalized patients positive for COVID, but it is likely not yet a significant drop, said Jeannie Monk, senior vice president of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association.

“Until we see a downtrend for at least a week, I just expect it to be up and down as we’ve seen from the start,” said Monk Tuesday.

[Alaska reports near-record COVID-19 hospitalizations as hospitals face a shifting situation]

High hospitalizations linked to COVID-19 have overwhelmed the state’s healthcare system in recent weeks, prompting a majority of facilities around Alaska to activate crisis care standards to help prioritize patient care then that resources are limited.

Alaska is one of the few states in the country to allow statewide standards of crisis care. Idaho did so last month. Crisis standards, when applied in the worst-case scenario, help physicians make difficult decisions to prioritize treatment for patients most likely to survive. They also offer legal liability protections for providers forced to adopt lower standards of care.

The way hospitals and other facilities use crisis standards tends to vary. For some, change is more of a precaution in case the pressure on staff and other resources increases. For others, the move involves triage committees to help make treatment decisions, or advice on how to allocate oxygen in the event of a shortage.

Some of the roughly 500 health care workers hired by the state to rescue small-staffed hospitals began arriving in Alaska last week, and more are on their way.

Alaska also reported its highest positivity percentage yet on Tuesday, with 9.86% of tests yielding positive results on average over the past seven days. Health experts say anything over 5% means more extensive testing is needed.

Antibody shipments arrive after the delay

After a delay of about a week in shipments of a COVID-19 treatment drug from the federal government, the facilities have now received the late shipments and have increased their supply, state pharmacist Coleman Cutchins said on Tuesday.

State continues to receive more treatment with monoclonal antibodies, a drug that keeps some people with COVID-19 who are at high risk of serious complications out of hospital when treatment is sought early of their illness.

At a South Anchorage warehouse on Tuesday afternoon, Janey Say, supply chain manager for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, packed nearly 2,000 treatment vials that would be airlifted to nine communities across the state in late afternoon.

“Because it’s a valuable resource, we only ship a few days a week because we don’t want it to stay at airports,” she said.

Say said that currently every community in the state requesting treatment is able to receive shipments, which she considers very lucky.

“I know firsthand that my dad received (monoclonal antibody therapy) when he had COVID, and he went through eight rounds, and it kept him from using a ventilator. So that’s great – it definitely helps people heal, ”she said.

Although the shipping issue appears to be resolving and there have been no delays since, the system is fragile, Cutchins said. The drugs could become unavailable at any time, he said, which highlights how vaccination and other COVID-19 measures are essential in reducing the risk of disease.